As a former special ed teacher and a mom with a son on the autism spectrum, it drives me absolutely batty that Theo is supposed to be autistic. I cracked up last summer when he was in the park playing realistically with a superhero action figure. I know he's just a child actor, but the writers obviously don't know what they're doing with Theo. Oh, when he knew his mom died... give me a break.

Real life lawyers get annoyed with lawyers on TV. Doctors & nurses get annoyed with medical shows. Parents of special needs children, especially autism because it's so misunderstood, get annoyed with TV portrayal. It's normal. But I FF through Theo scenes now if I'm watching it on DVR.

We interviewed Renee Jones maybe about two years ago and brought this up. She was well aware and said that what happened was that originally, they had a consultant from Autism Speaks on the set whenever Terrell was, and he or she would tell him what to do. If you remember, they recast the part specifically because they thought Terrell could handle this type of work. Anyway, due to a combination of budget cuts and lack of interest (remember it was Dena Higley's pet story, need I say more), they don't have the professional guidance on set now, so it's just kind of done as Theo being this quiet kid.

They could really fix the whole thing imo if they included some lines about "his therapy is really working" or whatever. (I know sadly that's not always the case, but it can happen). I wish they'd just do that rather than stay in this ambiguous state.

Is Theo's autism even mentioned anymore? Newer viewers may not even know he's supposed to be autistic.

I don't think I've heard it mentioned since Daysaster and then it may have just been alluded to.